July 17

Posted on Jul 17, 2017

How easy it is to become preoccupied with earthly things. This was the story of Demas. Paul says of his former co-worker, “For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica” (2 Tim 4:10). It was not the present evil world, as we sometimes misquote it. In fact, he seems to have gone to Thessalonica to work with the church there. But Paul states that his decision was based on the present, rather than on the eternal. A divided heart is a dangerous heart. As someone said, “Wouldn’t it be a terrible thing if, when you got to heaven, you discovered that all you had done on earth could have been done by someone who wasn’t even saved at all!” It is said of those called “the enemies of the cross of Christ” that they “mind earthly things” (Phil 3:18-19). John makes it clear that I can either love the Father or the world, but I cannot love both. As Charles Spurgeon said, “God save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking into hell!”